The standard of expression one encounters on the various social media, even on Facebook, can range at times from low to quite high, and shades in between, but in the midst of that melee salient points or insights can emerge so it’s up to us to pick and choose. Just this past week, for example, on one of those platforms a young lady made a very impassioned post, on behalf of all music lovers, bemoaning, in her view, the paltry state of current popular music and expressing regret for the lack, in her words, of “a higher standard” in what is found in that field.
In all such commentaries on popular music, the blame for the condition is placed squarely at the feet of the musicians of the day, and the young lady’s outburst followed this trend when she cited the problem as the standard being produced by current producers here and in the region and many other voices have made the same accusation. To step back and look at the situation critically, however, there are many factors, other than standard of music involved, and so to start with one should point out that purely from a technical standpoint, the standard of musicianship and creativity in the industry is not truly where the problem lies and in fact that technical standard is not lower than it was, say, 10 or 10 years ago. The reality here is that while popular music is certainly the product of a large number of writers and musicians in the region, it is, as with any popular music of any country, driven principally, not by what musicians choose, but essentially by the society listening to the various interpretations and essentially saying, by what they buy and what they reject, “I like that.”
For far too long, media commentators have taken to lambasting our writers and performers for the state of our music, when, in fact, a range of music, in various styles and interpretations, are offered to the public and what becomes popular is totally the public’s choice. The other factor at play is simply the matter of time so that the society making the music choices today is a markedly different one from the society of 20 or even 10 years ago. We are only beginning to understand the forces at play, but suffice it to say that change is the constant, as we see in this society where the previous generation ridicules today’s popular fare as “not music” and the current generation mocks the previous product as “old timey” material not worthy of their attention. Further definition of what is “not music” will take us down a road of endless controversy, with each side holding firm to its view, but in all the chat the more invisible and more important factors of society’s influence is either ignored or discounted, when, in fact, that is truly the engine of the change. It is the public choosing, not the musician. For example, consider what would be the chances of a young Guyanese singer coming to the market with a calypso in the style of Lord Kitchener, or our own Canary? The fact that none such has appeared, among the scores of young composers among us, tells the story.
What we are seeing is not a change in musical standard at all; rather it is change in the society of today wanting the flavour and feel and approaches of today replicated in their music, which is a high energy, rhythm-based creation, in a dance-oriented music of this revved up time. Great musicians and composers and singers are still in play, but the style and the ideas are different. How much traction would we find today for a young singer doing his/her recordings in the style of Guyana’s former genius Bill Rogers or of the Mighty Chalkdust of Trinidad? The fact that we have none answers the question. Societal change has come and made enormous changes in everything in our life including our popular music. The musicians and composers have changed to suit that.
Think back to the style of simple popular music in the 1930s and remember the uproar when rock-and-roll came in later and that earlier music faded away. The Bunny Hop was once the most popular dance music in America, it is now extinct. Similarly with the musical fare of the Roaring Twenties, and the same shift took place with the advent of rock-and-roll. Cultures do not remain static – change is the order of the day as the society evolves and the dial phones go out and fast food comes in, and we send selfies online, and communicate instantly electronically, no longer 14 days via the Post Office, and so what we have now, not only in music, that, too, will change. I’m not sure when, or what it will be, that is in our future, but that change is coming and adults like the young lady complaining to me, will then will look back at today’s music and yearn for it, just as she is now are yearning for the pop music that used to be. Sure as the New Year is coming, sure as God made little green mangoes, that’s in our future. Maybe not tomorrow, or next week Friday, but it’s coming. Change is the constant; so our music today is a different form, more in keeping with the nature or flavour of our life now which is being expressed in our popular music – a medium that always changes to reflect the time.
